The PictureBook, a.k.a Sony VAIO PCG-C1VN

This is our first look at an amazing
little computer system, the Sony PictureBook. The look comes
primarily from its travels with me in Costa Rica in December 2000.

Before getting into specifics, let me say that the basic
machine is amazing. That is, you get an amazing amount of computer
in a package that could not even have been imagined a few years
ago.

However, it still isn't my favorite laptop; my favorite
remains my five-year-old Toshiba T3600. While the T3600 is bigger
and heavier, it is about as small as is practical for a serious
laptop. Being primarily a vi user, the 486/50 and 16MB of RAM is
sufficient for me, and the six-hour battery life is more than
enough.

On its own merits, however, the PictureBook is a real winner.
It measures 248 x 27 x 152 mm and weighs in at 2.2 lbs. The
official name is the Sony VAIO PCG-C1VN. It has a 400MHz Crusoe
processor, 128MB of RAM, a 12GB hard drive and a 1024 x 480 active
matrix display.

Before getting too far past my mention of battery life, the
PictureBook wins in this category. While we haven't run extensive
tests yet, a good guess is three to four hours on the standard
battery. A 4X battery is also available that should be good for
well beyond a whole work day.

Additionally, interfaces are available for most anything,
including FireWire, USB, sound, digital video and there's even a
slot for Sony memory sticks. Note that no serial or parallel port
is included; however, with all the other choices this is not likely
to be a serious problem. Also included is a Winmodem (which isn't
supported by Linux) and a Type II PCMCIA slot for anything else you
may need.

If these features aren't enough, toss in a built-in camera
that, under Linux, can capture JPGs or write an AVI file. The mouse
is one of those little pencil eraser-like gizmos but, on the plus
side, it has three buttons rather than the more standard and
expected two.

Our own Khris Goldberg snapped
in Costa Rica.

Snapped at Houston Airport
while I was writing this review.

Is It a Real Computer?

By that, I mean, can you really treat this system as a laptop
or is it more of a toy? The VAIO is no toy. The excellent screen,
fast speed and huge disk make it a real computer. I see it as the
perfect system for either travel to remote locations where size and
weight are really important, or cases when you need a
part-time system, such as making a
presentation at a tradeshow.

The VAIO's speed and disk capacity make it a real computer.
In fact, only one hardware item detracts from the system's overall
usability--the keyboard. The size, while certainly on the small
end, isn't the significant problem. In order to get the keys
(specifically, the arrow keys) where they wanted them, Sony decided
to make the slash key (/) substantially narrower than all of the
other keys. They also made the right Shift key the width of a
standard key rather than the same width as the left Shift
key.

While the slash key may not be especially important to an
MS-Windows user, a Linux/UNIX user can get frustrated quickly. I
also found myself hitting the up arrow key when I intended to press
the right Shift key.

That's it for my hardware complaints. However, I do have some
hardware-created complaints and some software problems. First, the
special "Fn" keys don't. These are key sequences where you press
the Fn key, as a special sort of shift key, followed by another
key. These sequences perform such functions as changing the display
brightness, selecting external video port vs. local display and
displaying battery status.

On earlier VAIO models, these sequences were handled by the
BIOS, but in this system, they have been changed to software
interpretations. While not an insurmountable problem, Linux support
had not been added when I received this system. As this is a common
"feature" of the new VAIOs, I'm sure a modified keyboard driver is
in the works.

The computer comes with a USB to SVGA cable. Connect your
monitor at boot time, and Linux sees and talks to it as well as the
internal display. But it talks at the same resolution as the
internal screen, so squares become rectangles. This problem will
have to be addressed before this puppy is a good choice for
connecting to overhead projectors.

The next problem was that only a modified version of Red Hat
Linux was available. In an office that runs all Debian systems,
this wasn't what I wanted to hear. If for no other reason, having
to deal with a totally different configuration system was not what
I needed. In addition, the vi command-line editing mode of bash
does not work on the default version included with Red
Hat--correctable but another unnecessary frustration. Hopefully,
the lack of availability of other Linux distributions and the Fn
key problem will be addressed before you read this review.

Finally, this system is running the 2.2.17 kernel. Rumor was
the 2.4 kernel would not boot on the PictureBook with the Crusoe
chip. This chip is made by Transmeta, Linus' employer, and Linus
has one of these systems. He quickly traced the problem to APM.
Disabling APM makes the 2.4 kernel boot fine; it is up to those
working on APM to figure out what to do next.

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